Tag Archives: ice play

Summer’s here which means that it’s officially ice excavation season! We love ice excavations and as the years pass, I’m always slightly surprised by just how into them Miss G is. She’s done many ice excavations in her time, and yet she still gets all amped up when I mention doing one {which I of course love}. I do try to make them fun and different each time, playing into whatever she’s interested in that summer, so a mermaid rescue ice excavation it was for my girl who currently loves mermaids. {So fun, right?! Mermaid birthday party here we come!}

Gracen and I are lucky enough to have one of her little friends join us for an afternoon of play each Wednesday. They play quite well together, so I put a few things out for them to explore in advance, then step back to let them play, helping communication and sharing happen when needed. We always have a good time together, but the last couple of times I’ve noticed that together they plow through the activities I’ve set out (2 minutes of play dough! 1 stroke of paint! 3 minutes of water play!) and then look at me with eager eyes for something more.

Last night as I was tidying the kitchen before heading off to bed, I came across our silicon mini muffin pan and randomly decided to fill it with water and gel food colouring instead of putting it away (totally normal, right?) Don’t ask how this all came about… An idea came to me, and I just ran with it (I blame jet lag and ridiculously early wake ups – we’re talking 2 or 3 a.m. right now).

When I saw this post from Reading Confetti, I immediately fell in love. We’ve made our own sidewalk chalk paintfor a long while now and I’d seen many frozen versions, but never had I seen them made in popsicle moulds before! After sharing the idea on our Facebook page and pinning it on several Pinterest boards, I made a mental note to pick up some more cornstarch the next time I was out so we could get the project under way.

Well luckily for me, not only did I remember to pick up cornstarch during our next grocery shop, but I also ran into these Duncan Hines Frosting Creations packets for the first time ever. Immediately, I knew our frozen chalk pops would be scented. A few days later, Miss G and I gathered up our materials and got to work.

Next up, I used the popsicle sticks to scoop a small amount of gel food colouring into each popsicle mould, and Miss G selected a Frostings Creation packet to coordinate with each colour before we added a small amount (maybe 1/8th of the packet) to each slot. (If you’re making this at home and can’t find the frosting flavour packets, you could always use unsweetened Kool-Aid or Jell-O powder instead.)

With our food colouring and powdered scent ready, we filled each popsicle mould about 2/3rds full of our cornstarch/water combo and Gracen stirred them well.

Then we topped them up with a little bit more cornstarch/water and Grae gently stirred them a little more.

At that point, all that was left to do was put our plastic handles in and freeze the chalk pops overnight.

The next day, they looked like this. The colours were vibrant, the texture was smooth and creamy, and they smelled absolutely delicious.

The blue one smelled like cotton candy, the green one was mint chocolate, the red was strawberry shortcake, and the orange was orange creme… YUM. The only potentially bad news is that because they do look so real and smell so wonderfully, some munchkins may be tempted to try eating them (yuck!) That being said, because they’re made strictly of kitchen ingredients, they are technically safe to consume. So though they may taste chalky and gross, they certainly wouldn’t harm a curious little monkey who snuck a lick.

With our fun new chalk pops in hand, we headed into the backyard to test them out. The verdict? They’re really awesome!

When they’re melting and drippy, they go on much like their liquid counterpart does, only via a wand of sorts instead of a paintbrush. When they’re not melting, they go on much like regular sidewalk chalk does – dry and colourful with a little bit of pressure. When dry, the colours are super vibrant and to me, they look very much like they’ve been made with regular sidewalk chalk.

By the time our chalk pops had melted, our cement pad was fully covered in bright swirls, drawings, drips, and letters. And the great news is that it all washed away really easily without any fuss – much easier than our sidewalk chalk paint normally does for some reason.

I can’t wait to pull this activity out again in Kuwait where the temperatures soar and our courtyard is made completely of cement.

♥

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Knowing that we were expecting a string of scorchers (for Vancouver, at least) here in the city, I prepped this sunny day activity a couple of days ago so it would be ready to go when the mood struck. All it took was a bunch of ice cube trays, a little food colouring, and some freezer space.

I know that some may wonder why on Earth I have so many shaped ice cube trays, and the only explanation I really have is – I’m a Kindergarten teacher. (They’re great for counting, sorting, AND making homemade soaps for Mother’s Day!) No, they’re not what we use on a regular basis. In fact, we have 8 regular ice cube trays in our freezer at this very moment. And while regular ice cubes would work just as well, I decided to pull out the fun ones to add some interest to our ice play.

With the ice cubes frozen and ready to go, I quickly gathered up a few kitchen goodies to accompany the ice. Some cups, a couple of spoons, and a spatula to mix, scoop, and stir with, and a jug, a squirt bottle, and spritzer {each filled with coloured water} to melt the ice and make “soup” with.

Gracen was pretty anxious to get her hands into this bin and didn’t hesitate to put her water reserves to good use.

Mmmmmm…. Soup!

With the soup ready to go, the tasting began. We did have to explain that she couldn’t put the small cubes right into her mouth, but she was more than happy to just lick the bigger cubes. Not as thrilled, was Papa, Grae’s official soup taste tester – yuuuummy!

Full of soup, it was time to climb in. Brrrrr! For being as cold as it was, she lasted a surprisingly long time in there.

With frozen feet, it was time to climb out, defrost those tootsies, and water the lawn a little…

And not long after, this is all we had left of our ice sensory bin…

Though this sensory bin doesn’t lend itself to repetitive use like most do, it’s easy to set up and so refreshing on a hot summer’s day that we’ll definitely be enjoying it again very soon. Bring on the heat!